Degenerative Hip Reports

posted by Jon

I'm not happy to add to the confusion, but a Baltimore radio show was reporting or speculating today that Adam Jones has a degenerative hip condition. This is completely unconfirmed, and no one else has reported anything similar.

Here is what the Baltimore Sun's Roch Kubatko had to say:

I've been in meetings most of the day and have an interview at 5 p.m. - not for a new job, so don't get your hopes up. But I wanted to address the rumor (because it's what I do these days) that Adam Jones has a degenerative hip condition and that's why the Erik Bedard trade hit a snag.

All I can say about the topic is that the Orioles became concerned with something related to Jones, and the fact that they wanted to bring him in for a physical before
alerting Bedard's agent that a trade agreement was reached should send off signals. But we've heard nothing up to this point about his hip.

Maybe this will prove true later. We'll find out soon enough. But nobody at The Sun would go on a radio show and blurt out this kind of information without being absolutely positive (and obviously reporting it in the paper first). That's dangerous territory, especially when you're possibly impacting a young athlete's reputation and future earnings.

For the sake of Jones, I hope it's false. For the sake of the person who said it, it better be right.

The first thing that popped into my head was Baltimore owner Peter Angelos and his reputation.

Paul White of Sports Weekly was on BaseballChannel.tv yesterday, and while talking about the Erik Bedard chaos said, "Angelos has been a stickler in the past with physicals and using them to get out of deals."

The one that comes to mind as a Mariner follower is when he used Aaron Sele's physical to get out of signing him. Sele ended up with us.

Angelos will definitely be looking at this as a way to get out of the deal, if that is really what he wants. What I don't understand is why no member of the Seattle media knows anything about this, and how the Baltimore Sun found out. Sounds a little phony, but only time will tell.

In other news, Adam Jones is heading home to Arizona. No physical, just out of Venezuela.

Also, Johan Santana is reportedly heading to the Mets. The Twins are getting a package lacking the big-time talent Seattle would have offered; too bad for us. Seattle may even be offering a better package for Bedard.